Resistance bands are used during a warm up for a strength and conditioning class at East Side Athletic Club in Dallas.

(
G.J. McCarthy
-
Staff Photographer
)

Bruce Boyd does sit-ups with a medicine ball during a strength and conditioning class at East Side Athletic Club in Dallas.

(
G.J. McCarthy
-
Staff Photographer
)

Head coach Geoff Ballard at East Side Athletic Club in Dallas.

(G.J. McCarthy - Staff Photographer)

Jillian Koerber and Justin Joseph take part in a strength and conditioning class at East Side Athletic Club.

(
G.J. McCarthy
-
Staff Photographer
)

I’m no football fanatic. I know the difference between a two-point conversion and a field goal, but when it comes to the Super Bowl, I am often more concerned about the dips and treats at the neighborhood gathering.

But if you’re more into the game than the guac, have I got a workout for you.

A new gem of a Deep Ellum gym, East Side Athletic Club, has classes that are a lot like football camp, with tire-flipping, ladder drills and pushing a huge sled. Football camp minus an actual football, anyway.

Considering I hated PE class and anything that involved line drills or racing, I recruited three girlfriends to check out this football-inspired class with me.

The setting is more Deep Ellum raw than Jerry World glitz. The gym shares a parking lot with a bar called Underpass that is quite literally beneath an underpass. Well, there you go. Let’s just call things exactly what they are and not sugarcoat it.

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Luckily, our class size was small and intimate. Staff members Geoff Ballard and Michele Huffman greeted us. It was evident they were collegiate athletes. Intimidating, yes. But they were gracious and welcoming.

We started the workout with a dynamic warmup. At East Side Athletic Club, they take the warmup process very seriously. In fact, orientation is required prior to the first class, just to be sure everyone is comfortable with the exercises. The orientation and the first two classes are free.

The philosophy is that training is a process the body undergoes in order to enact change. They view exercise as merely moving around until you sweat a lot and breathe heavily. But the East Side folks like to think they take it a step further with their program, which emphasizes barbell lifts. Think of it this way: They don’t exercise, they train.

East Side Athletic Club owner William Simpson tells me the class is aimed at providing “a structured, safe, effective weightlifting and conditioning program that people of all fitness levels can complete.”As we made our way down the turf with the various dynamic warmups, I thought to myself, “OK, this isn’t so bad.”

Then Huffman showed us the conditioning workout we’d be executing. It was relentless.

From bear crawls to sprints to kettlebells, I was fabricating my quickest and most plausible excuse for an exit. Then she told us we would go through the cycle three times. At that point I decided to power through.

My favorite was a core exercise where you slammed a hefty medicine ball against a steel door. With each rowdy clatter against the steel, I felt invigorated.

The staff is encouraging but tough. During a sprint drill, I heard one of them shout, “You can run faster than that!” It felt like an actual football practice, where my coach was encouraging me to hustle from the sideline.

Once I finished the first round, I realized I was actually doing a decent job. And so were my friends. I even pretended we were on a football team, doing two-a-days.

When the clock finally displayed quitting time, I felt euphoric. We were sore for days after our “football camp,” and already anticipate our next turn on the turf.

Kimber Westphall leads kickbox cardio and booty kick classes at several local gyms and hosts the Web series “Fit Trip,” which can be seen at fittripwithkimber.com.